After losing home, family hopes for historic café’s survival as Rapidan Dam collapse looms in Minnesota (2024)

In Rapidan, Minnesota, the Barnes family is almost synonymous with the nearby dam in imminent danger of collapse.

Their family home is only feet away from the Blue Earth River, which has overpowered the dam’s west abutment and is causing mass flooding along the area.

A few minutes away, the Barneses run a café called the Dam Store, renowned for its homemade pies and sandwiches. The Barneses have owned the shop — which has been in business since 1910 — for nearly 50 years, according to NBC affiliate KARE of Minneapolis.

As residents anxiously watch the dam, the threat of possible collapse hits extra close to home for the Barneses.

It’s a matter of when, not if, the family will lose its home, Jenny Barnes said.

“We’re surely going to lose the house no matter what,” Barnes said. “Whether it falls in the river or if we take it down, it’s damaged, and we will definitely lose our house.”

As aerial images of the dam’s damage surfaced over the weekend, some viewers noticed the Barneses’ home nearly dangling from the riverbank’s edge. The river devoured the house’s bottom layer, exposing its foundation.

The dam, which is managed by Blue Earth County, is not unaccustomed to flooding. Repeated inundation over more than half a century had already caused structural damage, according to the county’s website. A 2021 assessment determined that the dam needed to either be extensively repaired or entirely rebuilt — but that doing nothing “would pose a public safety concern and a tremendous liability.”

The county was figuring out its next steps based on feedback from the community.

Last year, Blue Earth County sought to release its licensure exemption under the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, as the damage no longer allowed the dam to produce electricity effectively.

Barnes grew up in the house now teetering on the edge of the riverbank. She said that there is always a risk of flooding when you live near a river but that damage this severe was unthinkable because the house was not close to the level of the river.

“We were up on the higher end of this embankment,” she said. “We weren’t anywhere near ever thinking about the risk of flooding ever.”

The family watched the river swell over the weekend, “play by play.” When it swallowed a nearby shed owned by Blue Earth County, Barnes said, she knew her house’s fate was “inevitable.”

“It’s been a very scary and hard situation,” she said.

On social media, commenters have left hundreds of comments wishing the family well and praising the Dam Store for its food and friendly service. Despite the remote location of the unassuming café, it has been included in destination guides as one of Minnesota’s best pie shops, and online reviewers say the desserts alone are “worth the trip.”

The Blue Earth Historic Society says the building where the Dam Store operates has been in existence since the dam was built in 1910 as an energy source. Up until now, it had suffered no major destruction.

Lori Ann Bode, who lives near the store, said the Dam Store is “historical” and a destination known throughout the state. Senators have been known to visit just to look at the dam and take pie back to their hometowns, Bode said.

Bode fears the area will never be completely rebuilt, noting how devastating the destruction is to the close-knit community.

“Everybody is just in shock,” she said. “It’s going to take a long time for us to all wrap our heads around it, because everybody knows everybody.”

“People that live in big cities might think, ‘Oh, well, you know, this is no big deal,’” she said. “But to us, it’s like New Orleans when that flooded.It’s not on the same level, but that’s how we feel — we feel helpless.”

Still, despite the imminent fate of Barnes’ home, she hopes that once the historically bad weather subsides and damage is assessed, her family’s store survives.

“We’re holding on as best as we can right now. We’re kind of playing the wait-and-see game,” she said. “We don’t really know what’s going to happen or what the future’s going to hold for us, but we’re holding on strong for saving our Dam Store.”